I've been having these for lunch lately and as they are so simple I was going to post the recipes on the food diary blog but you know what? They've been so delicious they've been promoted! I'm usually not keen on bagel sandwiches only because I find they are too thick to eat and for me bagels HAVE to be toasted. This way of grilling the bagel first works great as you don't end up squishing out all of your filling while grilling and the butter spread side gets nice and crisp with a wonderful "buttery" flavour, much better than grilling the bagel sandwich whole or by simply toasting the bagel first.

Oh, and I never know what to call vegan equivalents of meat and dairy products, am I supposed to give it a funny name? Chikn? Not use the word butter? "Margarine grilled" doesn't have the same ring to it. I never know, but part of me simply cannot purposely spell anything wrong! It's a vegan blog, you guys know I'm talking about the vegan versions ;-)

I was quite fancying something with vegan chicken and avocado and first came up with the chicken and avocado version and it was absolutely delicious. Then, I had made up some white bean houmous - long story short but I think I've developed an intolerance to chickpeas! As I could not live without houmous I had a go at making my usual houmous recipe with haricot beans as well as cannellini and it turned out perfect, I couldn't even tell the difference and I had no reaction to it, thank God for that! Can you imagine a life without houmous? Me neither.

As I had some Caramelized Onion and Poppyseed Bagels (Tesco brand) I had a go at making another bagel toasty, this one screaming out for sun-dried tomatoes and basil. O.M.G - this was amazing! I love discovering new and delicious sandwiches. Sometimes I think I'm like Joey from Friends :-)

Lastly, as I wanted to include as many bagel variations as possible here and also had some multigrain seeded bagels I figured some peanut butter and banana a la Elvis would make another great version. Oddly enoughI don't actually like banana with bread but my husband does so made that one for him and he loved it. Oh and it would also be delicious with vegan nutella instead of the peanut butter. If you live in Ireland, Spar's own label Hazelnut Spread is vegan!

Obviously there are loads of variations possible here, I didn't even get into any using vegan cream cheese! But here are a few simple and yummy options for you:

Vegan Butter Grilled Avocado, Chicken and Basil Bagel Toasty:

1 plain bagel

vegan butter

1/4 - 1/2 an avocado (depends on size)

smoked sea salt (or regular or garlic salt...)

freshly ground black pepper

40g Fry's Chicken Strips (or whatever brand you like)

1/4 tsp oil

few fresh basil leaves

Get a grill pan nice and hot.Split the bagel in half and spread with some vegan butter. Place the butter side down on the grill pan and press firmly down with a spatula to both flatten the bagel and to get the blackened grill marks. Repeat lightly on the other side.

Mash the avocado with a pinch of smoked sea salt (or regular, garlic salt would be lovely too) and some black pepper and spread on both halves of the bagel:

Fry the chicken strips in the oil until cooked and crispy golden on the outside. Place them on one half of the bagel:

Top with some fresh basil leaves:

...and eat!

♥

Nutritional Information: will vary on the brand of vegan chicken and bagel used.

Get a grill pan nice and hot. Split the bagel in half and spread both insides with vegan butter. Place buttered side down on the grill pan and press firmly down with a spatula to both flatten the bagel and to get the grill marks on it. Flip over to further get grill marks on the other side.

Remove and generously spread houmous on one buttered side of the bagel and grind some black pepper over top. Sprinkle with the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil leaves. Sandwich together and eat!